The online network X has provoked major anger after users utilized its AI chatbot Grok to manipulate photos of females by taking off their clothing.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the tool has been employed to remove clothing from women to make them appear in swimwear non-consensually, as well as to insert them in inappropriate situations.
Developer Reaction and Legal Stance
XAI, the organization that created Grok, offered no comment to questions, other than an standard message stating "legacy media lies".
A government spokesperson stated that legislation is being brought forward to prohibit nudification technology. Under a upcoming criminal offence, anyone who provided such technology would "receive a jail term and significant fines".
"The platform is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they desired to," said a law professor, adding they "seem to have a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Capabilities
The communications watchdog Ofcom said tech firms must "evaluate the potential" of people seeing unlawful material on their networks, but did not specify whether it was presently investigating X or Grok in regarding artificial intelligence images.
Grok is a no-cost artificial intelligence—with some premium features—which responds to X users' queries when they mention it in a post.
It is frequently used to give reactions or more background to other posters' comments, but people on X are also capable of alter an uploaded photo through its artificial intelligence picture modification function.
Background of Criticism and Policy
The system has been criticised for enabling users to create photos and clips with explicit content and sexually suggestive content, and it was previously alleged to have been involved in making graphic content of public figures.
"X has been enabling the production and distribution of these images for a long time without taking any steps and we have yet to see any challenge by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting images of persons in a sexually explicit manner".
In a comment, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate deepfakes or illegal content" and confirmed this covered sexual deepfakes generated with AI.
It said networks such as X were required to take "necessary actions" to "lessen the danger" of users viewing unlawful content on their platforms and to delete it promptly when they are notified of it.
